Tybee Vacation

This spring for the kids track-out we planned a family vacation. It started with Kelley's mom taking them down to the lake for a weekend, then my mom picked them up on Monday to head for the coast. Kelley and I are always grateful for a few kid-free days! Tybee Island is outside of Savannah GA, and our story begins on Wednesday.

Funny Faces

Giant German Beer

and cookies & Innis & Gunn for St Patricks day

Ok, fine, we spent the kid free days enjoying ourselves a bit.

It's about a 6 hour drive from Raleigh down to Tybee. I took off W/T/F from work, so we headed down wednesday morning and got there in time for dinner at AJ's seafood. It was amazing as always, they really do have the best shrimp on Tybee.

The path from our house to the beach

Kids were happy to be at AJ's as well

After dinner we made it down to the beach for a bit before sunset. We saw some kind of strange sea ducks floating around, but it never flew away. Also I got a really cool picture of us with the Tybee lighthouse in the background.

Evil Genius loves those magnet earrings because she refuses to get her ears pierced

Thursday was a bit cold, so we opted to go to a nearby park instead of going to the beach first thing. Then we quickly realized that our kids are now too old to typically enjoy going to a park. ha! Didn't see that one coming. Every other kid there was half their size.

Ella's as long as the slide!

She still fits on the swings

This super-creepy tree was full of birds

Later we went into downtown Savannah. Sav is an incredibly beautiful city that's always a lot of fun. We did some shopping on Rivers street, played in the squares, and enjoyed the spanish moss in the huge oak trees. Amazing.

Ella stopping that ship from reaching the harbor

Savannah's waving girl statue

Those trees! This is downtown in a big city?

Playing in the historic squares

Ella loves all things pirate, and mom's birthday is coming up so we decided to take everyone to dinner at the Pirate's House. This is one of the oldest historic homes in Georgia. Supposedly there was a tunnel that Blackbeard the Pirate used to get from the water into the house where he kept some treasure. It was also heavily featured in Robert Louis Stevenson's book Treasure Island! So the atmosphere was unique and the food was amazing. We all had a blast in there. Ella was in her natural habitat.

she's too funny

a fireplace full of skulls! argh!

Friday was quite a bit warmer, so we ended up going down to the beach for a bit in the morning. The kids got in the water but it was a bit too cold for me. Still good to just walk around and get some time in the sun listening to the waves and talking to this beauty

and that was the last picture I took! Strange that I didn't get a single picture of my parents. Dad got a wild hair and came down on Friday afternoon. We went to his favorite place on the island for dinner, they pass out free shots to salute the sunset every day! We ate a bit early for that, but still got to enjoy a few cold beers with my old man, then watched the NCAA tournament games at the house afterwards with a few more. Dad's parkinsons disease is really starting to limit his mobility, it really makes me treasure the time we get to spend together just sitting around drinking beer and talking shit about sports.

My plan for Saturday was supposed to start with my running the Skidaway Island Marathon, but unfortunately my foot is still too busted so that didn't happen. It was also supposed to end with another massive platter of fried seafood, and that didn't happen either. The kids started back to school on monday, so we decided to head back to Raleigh on Saturday to save Sunday to recover from the road trip. The drive back was uneventful. Not being able to run the marathon thanks to an injury was really depressing. I want to be healthy and out there doing what I love to do! But overall missing the race did not put a damper on the overall vacation.

Turns out the wife of one of my fraternity brothers ran Skidaway, and I had no idea they were in town until we were almost back on the road home.  My friend Charlotte ran the Wrightsville Beach marathon, her 100th overall. There was a big party that we missed, but I'm super proud for both of them. Shanti had a nice PR in the skidaway half and Charlotte had a killer party with lots of running friends there.

Another fun trip to Tybee is in the books! We all had a blast. The kids didn't want to leave. Mom and Dad stuck around another night to get everything cleaned then headed back to Greenville. This is why I really enjoy the year-round school schedule. We get to do this kind of thing in the spring when it's actually pleasant to be there. Actually it could have been a bit warmer but everything else was really perfect.

EG's big weekend

Two years ago Ella's 3rd grade spring outing with her Indian Princess tribe fell on the same weekend as my brother Morgan's wedding. We had to miss Camp Seafarer that year, so I took her on an Epic Mountain Adventure to Boone, NC. Evil Genius didn't have a conflict like that, so I offered her the choice. She didn't really enjoy last years' Camp Seafarer the way that Ella did and it's really expensive. So I let her choose between that or a trip like Ella had. She picked the trip, so I was able to plan a fun weekend in Boone for just the two of us! It just so happened that her weekend started on the last day of school (and Ella's 5th grade graduation). So after school, we headed for the mountains!

IT'S AN EPIC MOUNTAIN ADVENTURE (part 2)

97* when we left Raleigh, and only 72* in Boone when we got there!

EG took this one

In the hotel

She separated the peanut butter from the M&M shell

Friday all we really did was drive up to Boone. It is always refreshing to my soul when I can get back to the mountains. Being able to show my kids individually what I love so much about this region is very special to me. After we got checked into the hotel, we drove around Boone for a bit, grabbed some food, and got rested for a big saturday.

EG in front of the water wheel

Giant ropes course in front of .......

TWEETSIE!

Her favorite part about that picture is that there's someone else taking a picture of their kid in the background of our picture. Tweetsie railroad is an amusement park between Boone and Blowing Rock that has an actual steam engine train. When I was in college, I worked here as an indian (actor) for one of the shows, it was the best job ever. Basically I got paid to sit on a couch and drink beer all day.

EG went to Jail

Indian represent!

She was a good driver

Cool view from the racecars

Inside the swinging ride thingy

on the carousel

She named the horse lickety-split

In front of the #12 Tweetsie Railroad

Riding the train

Indians are attacking the fort!

I went to jail when we got back

then I rode a horse

She was terrified of taking the ski lift to get to the top amusement rides

that terrified!

Pretty view from up there!

We were sitting on a "cowch"

Baby goats at the petting zoo!

mean mugging for the wanted poster

I had a blast. It was a warm day, but not too hot to be uncomfortable. She really embraced the rides and the environment and had a wonderful time. I didn't really expect her to be quite as daring as she actually acted, so we really had a lot of fun.

After Tweetsie, it was Blowing Rock night. We got dressed up a bit, and I got to take her out for a fancy dinner at Twigs Restaurant in Blowing Rock. Now that it's June of 2016, I can say that it's been more than 20 years that Kelley and I have been together. We met in the bar at Twigs in April of 1996. So to take EG to dinner at the same place where her Mommy and I met so long ago is really special.  and of course, EG insisted on taking the same bar stool that Mommy had and I had to have the same stool as well. So sweet!

She took this inside of Twigs

Cheese fries was the only thing on the menu she would eat there

her Americana dress was a hit in front of the main dining room

We drove around a bit after dinner to show her some of the other places where Kelley lived in Blowing Rock and ended up on Main street where Kelley and I used to work back in the day.

This is the Fantastic View at Canyon's restaurant. 20 years ago it was an apartment building.

So CUTE!

Kelley and I both used to work at Windwood

Kilwins Ice Cream is a must stop at

So is the Hat Shop next door

EG had a blast out in Blowing Rock, but I'm sure she got tired of me telling her about stuff that we did 20 years ago. All that was left in the weekend was Boone Day. And that is always fun. We started out driving around town showing her the apartments Kelley and I had when I was in college, then ended up on campus at Appalachian State. I got to show her the school of music, some of the cooler parts of campus, and we ended up at Macado's on King Street for lunch before heading back to Raleigh.

The amazing view from the back side of Rich Mountain

EG with my freshman dorm building in the background (Bowie, on the left)

In front of the football stadium

School of Music - 4th floor practice rooms

At Macado's

That gorilla is nasty

She even added some graffiti

Founders Bell on campus!

Yosef! The original mountain man

The closest she's ever been to ducks

Overall this was an amazing weekend that really exceeded my expectations. We had a blast just being together the whole time. This was very special to me, and I'm sure very special for Lena too. This really was a trip for the books. I'm grateful to be able to do this with each of my girls.

67* when we left Boone, 92* when we got back to Raleigh on Sunday afternoon

Ella and EG in front of Yosef - I got a few years older too!

Since this is officially the end of EG's 3rd year of the Indian Princess program, that means we're done. She doesn't want to go to Rockmont like Ella did. And since she is my youngest, that means that I am officially done with everything Indian Princess now. I can honestly say that it has been one of the best things I have done as a parent. It's been 5 years that we have had something IP related going on every month. I still have to glue some patches onto the vests, eventually I will get around to it. But I cannot say enough good things about the YMCA's Indian Princess program, also known as Y-Guides. So much fun, and we've all made lifelong relationships.